Bergen Performing Arts Center wants to expose as many people to the arts as possible and is launching a Contemporary Arts Series Program where you can buy 3 tickets and get one free to selected shows including Smithsonian Jazz, an Ella Fitzgerald Tribute on Friday, October 4, Hungarian Fold Dance Monday October 21, Modori Sunday, November 9, Haifa Symphony of Israel Saturday, February 2, Celtic Nights Wednesday, March 13th and Kronos Quartet Sunday, March 23—buy 3 seats at any price level and get the 4th ticket for free- this is a great opportunity to expose children to a diverse group of musicians. All tickets can be purchased at Ticketmaster.com or by calling the Box office at 201 227 1030 or simply visiting the Box Office at 30 North Van Brunt Street in Englewood, New Jersey. This offer is not retroactive and can't be combined with any other offer.

SMITHSONIAN JAZZ ELLA FITZGERALD TRIBUTE - 10/4
Dubbed “The First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald (1917 - 1996) was the most popular female jazz singer in the United States for more than half a century. In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums. Her voice was flexible, wide-ranging, accurate and ageless. She could sing sultry ballads, sweet jazz and imitate every instrument in an orchestra. She worked with all the jazz greats from Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Nat King Cole to Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Benny Goodman. (Or rather, some might say all the jazz greats had the pleasure of working with Ella.) She performed at top venues all over the world, and packed them to the hilt. Her audiences were as diverse as her vocal range. They were rich and poor, made up of all races, all religions and all nationalities. In fact, many of them had just one binding factor in common - they all loved her.

HUNGARIAN FOLK DANCE - 10/21
The most important stylistic feature of the dance within the Carpathians is the unusually large amount of personal improvisation. Observers have never failed to notice the individual nature of the Hungarian dance during the previous two centuries. This dancing is individual to such an extent that it is often difficult for scholars to establish the communal laws regulating individual creativity and improvising. Folk dance research has shown that this individuality is not merely poetic licence, but genuine features. Daniel Berzsenyi wrote, "Its secret laws are not ordered by craft. The laws are its own and enthusiasm sets the limit

MIDORI - 11/9
The violinist Midori is recognized not only for the evolution and scope of her 29-year career as one of the most dazzlingly gifted performers before the public, but increasingly for the prescient and innovative community engagement initiatives to which she devotes a substantial amount of her energies and resources worldwide on an ongoing basis. Named a Messenger of Peace by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2007, she has created a new model for young artists who seek to balance the joys and demands of a performing career at the highest level with a hands-on investment in the power of music to change lives.

HAIFA SYMPHONY OF ISRAEL 2/9
The Haifa Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1950 and in recent years has become the focal point of musical life in Haifa and the north of Israel. The Orchestra, which is the most significant musical institute in the north of Israel, has recently expanded its activities throughout the country. World Acclaimed Maestro Noam Sheriff, one of Israel's most versatile musicians, is the music director of the HSO. The Orchestra has a policy of encouraging and promoting original Israeli music and of giving an opportunity for Israeli soloists and conductors to perform.
The HSO received the Prime Minister's Award for being the leading performer of original Israeli compositions in Israel.

CELTIC NIGHTS 3/13
Drawn from the history and folklore of Ireland and her Celtic cousins, Celtic Nights will bring the audience on a journey of a people leaving and arriving , their lives spent in a world of ships, trains and planes, coaches and horses, on foot; coming and going, saving for fares, writing of where they were, comparing what they had with what they might have elsewhere, visiting others, always moving on the surface of a foreign land, meeting, conversing, comparing --- searching for a place better than Ireland or half as good.
The show Celtic Nights will bring us on this journey every eight minutes to a different place, filling us with laughter, sadness, melancholy, a sense of who we are and who our children will grow up to be, passing the mantle of the legacy of their forefathers through music, song, dance and storytelling with pride and passion..
Within each eight minutes, Celtic Nights will capture the essence of a great people from a small Island and their journey of hope and desire.
Beautiful imagery and costumes will enhance the experience.
Songs will be sung with the audience of the night becoming a part of the story on stage. Dances will be danced and music will be played to leave a memorable evening of total entertainment for all who have come to be a part of Celtic Nights. Songs they will have heard maybe in childhood or in a pub, with a chorus for all at a gathering as we say in Ireland, where even those who can’t sing will want to join in.
The cast of three male vocalists with three beautiful female singers, alongside six of Ireland’s most talented and coveted international dancers and two fine musicians will leave the theatre ringing to the sounds of Celtic Music old and new.
Celtic Nights, a two hour showcase, not only of the rich heritage of the island and its culture will bring us to that place that many emigrants now call home, the United States of America where people from all lands have been welcomed through Ellis Island and the now adjoining Airports of New York City and beyond.
The influence of the old music on what became American sounds - whether it be Bluegrass, Appalachian, Country and Western or the great songs and ballads from Shenandoah to the songs of The American Civil War - will be a part of the Celtic Nights experience.

KRONOS QUARTET 3/ 23
For nearly 40 years, the Kronos Quartet—David Harrington, John Sherba (violins), Hank Dutt (viola), and Jeffrey Zeigler (cello)—has pursued a singular artistic vision, combining a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to expanding the range and context of the string quartet. In the process, Kronos has become one of the most celebrated and influential groups of our time, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 45 recordings of extraordinary breadth and creativity, collaborating with many of the world's most eclectic composers and performers, and commissioning more than 750 works and arrangements for string quartet. In 2011, Kronos became the only recipients of both the Polar Music Prize and the Avery Fisher Prize, two of the most prestigious awards given to musicians. The group’s numerous awards also include a Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance (2004) and "Musicians of the Year" (2003) from Musical America.